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Matt Weldon

Matt Weldon

Posted: 05 Jan 2014

Taken: 30 Jan 1999

7 favorites     3 comments    644 visits

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telephone •
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logansport indiana •
electric pole •
pole line •
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Railroad Pole Line in Decay

Railroad Pole Line in Decay
January 30, 1999

This shot taken along the old Pennsylvania Railroad just outside Logansport, Indiana known as Logansport Yard "A."

A part of the railroad scene that is fast disappearing are the railroads pole lines. Basically called the pole line, the pole line had four basic functions or electrical applications - telegraph, telephone, controlling (signaling), and power.

Telegraph - The telegraph was the first electrical application used along the railroad for both railroads own use and for public or leased lines like the Western Union. Although the telegraph was built along railroads ROW in the early years of the telegraph for easy access. In 1851 the New York and Erie Railroad would be the first railroad in the U.S. to use the telegraph to coordinate the movements of its trains. The telegraph was last used for railroad use by the mid 1980s.

Telephone - Railroads first started to use the telephone in 1879, but wouldn't become common use until the early 1900s. In later years the telephone was used for wayside communications between train crews and dispatchers at switches, control points, etc. Also used between railroad stations and basic dispatcher use.

Controlling (Signaling) - This is also sometimes called the code line. This was basically used for signal control circuits which includes the CTC which used many wires and ABS which required less wires.

Power - Power was needed to run the various signal apparatuses, switch machines, and wayside detectors.

Usually the busier the railroad was the more lines were used along the railroad. A small branch line railroad might only need a few wires for telegraph or telephone use, while a main trunk line railroad would have up to 60-80 wires with all the electrical applications.

Today all this old open wire technology is being replaced by fiber optics, microwave, radio, satellite, and computers. If a pole line is still being used along a railroad today, only the controlling (signaling) and power lines would be the only electrical applications used. In 5-10 years railroad pole lines will only be seen in books or pictures.

Scanned from a 35mm negative using a Pentax PZ-10 camera, Pentax FA 28-80mm f/3.5-4.7 lens.

AstroElectric, , austintaylor619, Lewis Perkins and 3 other people have particularly liked this photo

Comments
 Power Lines
Power Lines
Great photo there! I love seeing those old phone poles still up. If only they had their wires...now that would be a wonderful scene!
10 years ago.
Matt Weldon has replied to Power Lines
Thanks! As in my caption above, this railroad pole line would of had more than just phone lines. It would also had telegraph, signaling also called controlling and code, and power. On the botton crossarm and right with the two porcelain insulators were the 440 volt power circuits. I picked about two dozen CD 235 Pyrex insulators off these 440 volt circuits.

Back in the early days of insulator hunting (late 60's to mid 70's) I remember all the lines being up on the railroad pole lines including all the crossarms. Starting about the mid to late 70's most railroads were done using the telegraph and telephone. This is the time when they started taking down all the copper lines that supported the telegraph and telephone and the signaling and power lines stayed up longer in use. Today there are very few railroad that are still using the signaling and power lines with most out in the western states, especially the Union Pacific Railroad.
10 years ago.
 austintaylor619
austintaylor619
Some poles from the telegraph and old telephone era are still up most of the cross arms, wires and insulators are gone. The sturdier old poles have aerial communication cables and or fiber-optic lines on them now. Some insulators cross arms and cut wires are still there.
7 years ago.

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